How Margaritas disappeared from Cape Town’s menus

Cape Town might be the first modern big city in the world to run out of water. It is the most developed city in Africa, but no development index is immune to droughts.

Due to many years of low rainfall, increased population size, and poor planning of water management, Cape Town’s water levels in the dams are at an all-time low. So low that the water supply was predicted to be cut off on April 21, 2018, coined as Day Zero.

Miraculously, through intense water conservation methods, Day Zero got postponed to 2019. But Capetonians are not celebrating with water balloon fights just yet.

J. Keith van Straaten

Dreading the countdown to Day Zero, Cape Town’s citizens are now limited to using 50 litres of water a day. Nobody wants to imagine what Day Zero would mean: water supply entirely cut off and rationed out at stations. It is distressing to imagine four million people line up for water every day— could normal life even continue? I think everyone envisions an apocalyptic scenario just thinking about it. To get a better understanding of how locals are dealing with the crisis, I talked to someone who experienced it.

Maxine Matthijsen visited Cape Town last December and this March, witnessing the water crisis first-hand. Having done an exchange semester abroad in Cape Town a few years ago, Maxine came back to reconnect with old friends and the city. She shed some light on how Capetonians conserve water these days and it became clear to me that Cape Town is way beyond "mindful" conservation; the conservation is extreme.

An average eight minute shower uses about 75 litres of water and individuals have to cut down water consumption to 50 litres. Every drop counts. How are the Capetonians handling it? Maxine gave me an inside view.

J. Keith van Straaten

You were in Cape Town even before Day Zero was announced. How did the atmosphere change while you were there?When I was in Cape Town in December it was still doable. There were many signs reminding people to conserve water, but no major panic. When I landed in Cape Town’s airport in March, the publicity of the crisis was much more intense. Everywhere I turned there were signs and warnings about the water crisis. It felt like the city was begging tourists to save water.

And do you think that tourists understood the severity of the situation?To be honest, even though I have a connection with Cape Town, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into before I got there, so the tourists must have been shocked. The South African authorities warned visitors as soon as their plane touched soil though. There were announcements on the intercom, the airport plaza had an exhibition of empty water bottles hanging from the ceiling. I don’t think people in the West can really grasp what is happening in Cape Town just from the news, but once they arrive there, it’s pretty clear how serious it is.

J. Keith van Straaten

How did the locals deal with the crisis?Everyone talked about it, you couldn't ignore it was happening. The limitation of using 50 litres of water per person was tough at first, but then it became a routine. You really learn how to use less water. It becomes normal to take one-minute showers and to collect the water from the shower in a bucket, then use it to flush the toilet.

In general, toilets were not flushed unless it was very necessary, including in restaurants and bars. People avoided washing hands and instead used hand sanitizer, which was provided everywhere. The water was actually cut off from the taps, but I think everyone was very conscious of the problem and wouldn’t have used them anyway.

Swimming pools became taboo to use and even drinks that require a lot of unnecessary water to be made, like Margaritas, came off the menu.

So everyone was in it together or was this in some way regulated?Everyone was sort of policing each other. I had the feeling everywhere I went that people were monitoring everyone else's water consumption. Many times I saw girls give weird, disapproving look to someone who had flushed the toilet. You can actually track how much water people in your neighbourhood use online and “shame” them, so to speak. People exceeding the 50 litres per day quota are supposed to get fines.

In a city like Cape Town, with extreme economic differences and a sensitive history of white privilege, Day Zero would highlight inequality to extreme visibility. Privileged elites are remaining low-key for fear of being labelled pro-apartheid. I didn’t get the feeling that a particular race or economic class felt more entitled to water than others, but everything could change if the situation worsens.

J. Keith van Straaten

Doomsday is postponed, what now?Well the crisis is not over and this cannot be stressed enough. Water levels in the dams are decreasing and people are still limited to using less water. This might just become the new Capetonian lifestyle for the next few years, but it’s a better alternative than Day Zero. There are some band-aid solutions for the worse-case-scenarios, but unless we learn how to make it rain, conservation is the only way.

Day Zero is set to some arbitrary day in 2019, but if people relax too much, it will come sooner.

***

We ended our talk on a negative note because, despite praiseworthy collective efforts of everyone in Cape Town, the situation has not improved. As Maxine said, the crisis is not over. On the contrary, it has gotten worse.

So maybe it’s not a bad idea for everyone to close those taps a bit; we want to avoid the apocalyptic water wars as long as possible. Stay tuned for an update from Maxine as she returns to her beloved Cape Town this July (the notorious rain season).

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An appeal you can donate to to support the Black Lives Matter movement

This appeal is a collection of thirteen Kinder vetted organisations that are directly or indirectly related to combating racial injustice, police brutality and discrimination against Black people by law enforcement and legal systems. We have made sure this appeal contains a mix of organisations tackling the issues from different angles. Your donation to this appeal will support all of the organisations you can read about below.

Areas of focus include:

Bail funds for protesters

Structural and systemic racism and police brutality research

Support, protection and lobbying for Black people’s civil rights

Civil and human rights education

Police accountability and criminal justice

Promoting Black communities, rights and lives

Mental Health support

The Problem

In the United States, more than one thousand people are killed by the police every year. Police brutality, the unwarranted and often excessive use of violence by law enforcement personnel, is often associated with racial profiling, discrimination against minorities and harassment of targeted people. Victims of police brutality are predominantly people of colour and low income. In such situations, law enforcement is rarely held accountable for their actions and there are not enough policies in place to make sure people get the justice they deserve.

Facts and Figures

Despite only making up 13% of the US population, Black Americans are two-and-a-half times as likely to be killed by the police compared to white Americans.

99% of killings by police from 2013-2019 have resulted in officers walking away without any charges .

There were only 27 days in 2019 where police did not kill someone in the United States.

An estimated 45 million Americans have adopted more progressive views on race and racism since the protests to end police violence began in 2014.

The solutions

Urgent solutions include legal support and education for people who are likely to be victims of police brutality. In the longer term, governments should adjust policies, regulations and laws to strictly hold law enforcement accountable for their actions. All law enforcement officers in the field should be thoroughly screened and trained on racism and racial injustice. We also need to support research on accountability, discrimination and racism specifically in regards to law enforcement. Finally, the longest term solution, the one all of the shorter-term ones leads up to and the only thing that will solve the problem for good: dismantling institutional and systemic racism.

Organisations you’re supporting by donating to this appeal

All organisations in this collection operate in the United States. Unless stated otherwise, they work nationwide.

Communities United Against Police Brutality

CUAPB was established to deal with police brutality on an ongoing basis. The organisation works on daily cases of police violence as well as taking on the more extreme cases. They combat police brutality from numerous angles, including political and legislative action, education, research, and advocacy for victims and their families.(visit their website)

National Police Accountability Project

NPAP is a project of the National Lawyers Guild. The project aims to protect the human and civil rights of individuals in their encounters with law enforcement and detention facility personnel. The central mission of NPAP is to promote holding law enforcement officers and their employers accountable for violations of the Constitution and laws of the United States. (visit their website)

Campaign Zero

This research-driven organisation aims to end police interventions, improve community interactions and accountability. They support the analysis of policing practices across the country, conduct research to identify effective solutions, provide technical assistance to organizers leading police accountability campaigns and develop legislation and advocacy to end police violence nationwide. (visit their website)

Black Lives Matter

BLM is a member-led organisation dedicated to ending white supremacy and building local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. They do so by combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and emphasising Black joy. (visit their website)

Minnesota Freedom Fund

The MN Freedom Fund is a community based nonprofit that combats the harms of unjust incarceration by paying bail for low-income individuals. They work to secure cash bail bonds for individuals who would otherwise be unable to secure their own bail. Their work is very important during times of active protesting. (visit their website)

Race Forward

Race Forward produces research and organises actions for communities, governments, and other institutions to dismantle structural racial inequity. They also host local government action, curate a daily news site on race issues, and organise a multi-racial conference on racial justice. (visit their website)

ABFE - A philanthropic partnership for black communities

BFE is a membership-based philanthropic organization that advocates for responsive and transformative investments in Black communities. Partnering with foundations, nonprofits and individuals, ABFE provides its members with professional development and technical assistance resources that further the philanthropic sector’s connection and responsiveness to issues of equality, diversity and inclusion. (visit their website)

Mothers against Police Brutality

MAPB formed to unite mothers who have lost their children to police violence. Every year families lose children and other loved ones to police killings. This organisation is run by a multi-racial, multi-ethnic coalition that united mothers nationwide to fight for civil rights, police accountability, and policy reform. (visit their website)

ACLU Minnesota

This organisation promotes, protects, and extends the civil liberties and civil rights of people in Minnesota by litigation, lobbying and community engagement. They protect civil rights by selecting, negotiating, and trying cases with the potential to establish legal precedent, broaden interpretation and strengthen civil liberties. (visit their website)

Black Mental Health Alliance

This organisation develops, promotes and sponsors educational forums, training and referral services that support the health and well-being of Black people and other vulnerable communities. They work with clinicians, local communities and individuals, to provide much needed mental health support. (visit their website)

National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP)

The NAACP aims to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination. They work to educate individuals on their constitutional rights and take all lawful action to secure exercise thereof. (visit their website)

Advancement Project

This is an organisation focusing on legal, civil and educational equality. AP is a next-generation, multi-racial civil rights organization. Rooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice, they exist to fulfill America’s promise of a caring, inclusive and just democracy. They use innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change. (visit their website)

The Bail Project

This organisation combats injustice in mass incarceration. They pay bail for people in need, reunite families and restore the presumption of innocence. Bails are returned to the fund and then ‘recycled’ for the next person in need, maximizing each dollar. This project is a critical tool to prevent incarceration and combat racial and economic disparities in the bail system. (visit their website)

Thank you to Eleanor Marsh for volunteering her time to help complete this appeal.

But recently, staff at the Meltham Wildlife Reserve in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, reported the arrival of a red kite that was found to be underweight and incapable of feeding itself.

Red kites search opportunistically for food, in the same way their historic kin made use of the rubbish heaps of Britain’s past. But the recent arrival of the kite at Meltham perhaps suggests the current situation of restricted travel – which has contributed to decreased roadkill – may not suit these previously persecuted birds of prey.

This raises questions about the way lockdown is impacting wildlife – for better and for worse.

Brown with a signature orange forked tail, red kites’ fortunes have shifted remarkably in recent decades. They were confined to Wales as recently as the 1980s after being hunted and culled as pests, as well as suffering pesticide contamination and inbreeding. But reintroduction programmes that began in the 1990s, have seen their numbers soar.

Kites from European nests were released across England and Scotland. Supported by feeding initiatives and nest monitoring schemes, their numbers have grown from around 20 in the early 1960s, to approximately 1,600 across the UK.

‘Human spaces’

The apparent “return” of wild animals to “human spaces”, perhaps due to the lack of human presence or management, has captured many people’s attention.

Housebound Brits are reporting (or noticing) more of nature in their own gardens, or tuning in to watch various wildlife webcams. Bird watching now features high on social media, with people keen to spot their wildlife neighbours on their daily walks.

For others, signs of ecological rejuvenation lend credence to ideas of COVID-19 as “nature’s revenge”. Humanity’s arrogant shortsightedness and efforts to exploit, consume and reorganise the nonhuman world in line with our own economic interests have produced conditions where a virus in China can quickly become a global pandemic. As one biologist in the US remarked: “We did it to ourselves”.

But the case of the emaciated kite sits awkwardly in relation to such narratives. Here, our withdrawal from the world has not created opportunities for a triumphant raptorial recolonisation, rather a material situation of scarcity.

Nature and the virus

The language of return and revenge speaks of “nature” as something external to human lives and spaces. This is despite a wealth of academic research and writing, particularly in geography, that has examined the fact that animals are - and have always been - present in our surroundings. Maccaques are establishing new urban territories in Indian cities. Rare species of hoverfly are living among urban parks and cemeteries in London. And peregrine falcons are inhabiting human architecture with and against design.

Such a notion that nature exists as a domain “out there”, distinct from society “in here”, has long been a feature of the way people, at least in the west, talk about the world. That’s been the case whether expressed via the celebration of distant wildernesses, or the differing perceptions of species as in, or out, of place in certain surroundings.

But the hungry kite suggests a different reality, one where humans, scavenging raptors and viruses are all jumbled together. Such “entanglement” raises important questions about our relationship with and obligation to others. This is particularly pertinent given we are living in an era of human-induced environmental crisis.

Living together

The kite’s situation offers a route beyond this idea of nature as separate to ourselves. For this is a species whose numbers in the UK were first diminished and then later reversed by human action.

Like a lot of animals that have successfully adapted to live alongside humans, the red kite is an opportunist making the most of our activities. When those opportunities are withdrawn, it becomes painfully clear that such a bird can flourish because, not in spite, of our presence. Clearly, the benefit of human withdrawal is unevenly distributed across nonhuman species.

In Turkey, for example, the government has mobilised resources to feed thousands of stray animals in cities, left hungry as a result of quarantine. But the entangled fate of humans and animals extends beyond cities, to places where conservation efforts attempt to promote the recovery of more diverse and lively ecologies.

An absence of human activity from numerous nature reserves raises the possibility that vital habitats will be overtaken by invasive species (which we ourselves introduced), as well as the limited capacity to manage damaging practices, such as flytipping and illegal shooting.

Similarly, the absence of humans to manage illegal hunting of endangered animals in Kenya may prove disastrous. While many wildlife reserves will be affected by reduced tourism, which will in turn impact conservation work.

In the face of these events, it is understandable that stories about nature’s “return” have been subject to parody online. The reality is that human relationships with other beings are much more complex and fraught. To some extent, perhaps the red kite at Meltham reminds us of this, and that we – animals and humans alike – are all in this together.

What is #GivingTuesdayNow and how can you help from home?

GivingTuesdayNow is an emergency event organised on May 5 by the non-profit organization Giving Tuesday as a response to the global crisis brought upon us by COVID-19. It is an addition to the organisation's annual Giving Tuesday event held on December 1 every year.

Giving Tuesday is an organisation dedicated to bringing generosity and citizen engagement back into the heart of our society. The organization's goal is to encourage people to give back to those who are less fortunate in any way they can.

#GivingTuesdayNow reflects the organisation’s values. It is a day of coming together globally and taking action. There are many ways you can join the movement, by raising your voice, using your reach, giving your time and donating to organisations and causes you care about.

The day is designed to drive an influx of generosity, citizen engagement, business and philanthropy activation, and support for communities and nonprofits around the world. It’s a day when we can all come together and give back in all ways, no matter who or where we are.

Donating to causes that are doing crucial work on the field is a great way to contribute from your home. Here are 3 Kinder approved organisations you can donate to:

Movement On The Ground

The COVID-19 crisis poses a great threat in refugee camps where people are often forced to live in confined spaces and don’t have access to proper sanitation facilities. Movement On The Ground is an organisation dedicated to improving the lives of people who live in refugee camps by providing services such as waste management, education and community building. Currently, the organisation is one the few who are allowed in the refugee camps of Lesvos and Samos and they are working hard to ensure the safety and dignity of camp residents. Donate to Movement on The Ground below, or visit their Kinder profile for more information.

StrongMinds

StrongMinds is an organisation treating depression and providing mental health services to women and children in Uganda and Zambia. The effect of the COVID-19 on the world population’s mental health is colossal, StronMinds is ensuring people adequate support to deal with the mental effects of this crisis. They are currently scaling their efforts in order to provide mental health support to hundreds and thousands of people across Uganda and Zambia. To support their efforts, donate to StronMinds below.

Hygiene Village Project

Access to safe water and proper sanitation services is something many of us take for granted, however, millions of people worldwide don’t have it. Safe water and sanitation are especially crucial for local communities to be able to handle this crisis. Hygiene Village Project is a local organisation that implements water, sanitation, hygiene promotion and environmental management programmes in Malawi. To help the organisation reduce disease and death rates in the region through their services you can donate below.